John Lurie

The ultimate avant-garde gadabout, John Lurie has been dancing about the edges of art since the saxophonist, composer, actor, and painter first emerged from New York's no wave scene in the late 1970s. His greatest acclaim came by way of his creation of the Lounge Lizards, a loose amalgam of virtuosic musicians and true minds (including Arto Lindsay and Marc Ribot) who, starting in 1978, constructed an eclectic stew of raw African roots played with a latter-day jazz sophistication. Lurie's sparse, otherworldly compositions have also provided an apt background to the ethereal films of Jim Jarmusch and Wim Wenders, not to mention his own unique travel show Fishing with John and his follow-up, Painting with John. John Lurie was born in 1952 in Minneapolis but raised in Worcester, Massachusetts. As a teen he played the harmonica, even bluffing his way on-stage to back the likes of Canned Heat and John Lee Hooker; later, he adopted the alto saxophone, and upon moving to New York City, he and pianist brother Evan formed the fake-jazz combo the Lounge Lizards in 1978. Emerging from the downtown no wave scene, the group channeled numerous influences -- punk, funk, film music, and worldbeat -- to create an irreverent, brash jazz sound they debuted on 1981's Lounge Lizards and that over time shed its ironic posturing to achieve a kind of transcendent cool. The Lounge Lizards' public renown was expanded greatly thanks to Lurie's collaboration with filmmaker Jim Jarmusch, which began with 1982's Permanent Vacation. Stranger Than Paradise launched Jarmusch to the forefront of American independent filmmaking upon its release in 1984, and it made Lurie -- who not only scored the film but also starred -- a cult favorite. Subsequent appearances in films as diverse as Down by Law, Desperately Seeking Susan, The Last Temptation of Christ, and Wild at Heart further established his credentials as a character actor. Still, music remained his primary pursuit, and in addition to Lounge Lizards albums, including 1986's superb Big Heart: Live in Tokyo, 1989's Voice of Chunk (direct-marketed via a TV commercial and 800-number), and 1998's Queen of All Ears, he also scored pictures like Mystery Train, Blue in the Face, Manny & Lo, and Clay Pigeons, even earning a Grammy nomination for his work on the 1985 hit Get Shorty. More solo work arrived with 1993's Men with Sticks, featuring his percussion-centric John Lurie National Orchestra. He also founded his own record label -- the aptly named Strange & Beautiful imprint -- releasing albums under the invented R&B persona Marvin Pontiac. Lurie also hosted his own television series, the cult classic Fishing with John. In the early 2000s, Lurie was stricken by a debilitating illness that halted most of his endeavors in music, film, and television; he received various diagnoses and concluded that the cause was chronic advanced Lyme disease. Lurie remained reclusive for much of the decade, and has focused his efforts primarily on painting, with exhibitions at museums and galleries in the United States, Europe, and Japan. His art also facilitated a return to television with Painting with John, a meditative follow-up to his previous series for which he also supplied the soundtrack.
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